Serbs

By

SERBS in Kosovo have demanded the division of the province into ethnic
"cantons" to protect them from the growing number of attacks by Albanians.
The move would mark a step towards partition, but the attacks are making the
case for it appear ever stronger.

Since Yugoslav troops and Serb police were withdrawn from Kosovo in June,
the Serb minority has been increasingly victimized by ethnic Albanians and
most of Kosovo’s 200,000 Serbs have fled the province. Of the remainder,
many have headed for Serb-controlled ghettos scattered around the province,
where their protection is the guns they still hold and Nato patrols.

Momcilo Trajkovic, the leading Serb politician in Kosovo, said at the
weekend that cantonisation was the only way to protect the Serbs and
insisted that these mono-ethnic enclaves should be legally recognised. He
said: "We think that cantonisation could stop the ongoing tragedy of the
Serb people. The multi-ethnic Kosovo has failed."

Mr Trajkovic’s proposal flies in the face of the West’s policy of
supporting an integrated, multi-ethnic Kosovo. Bernard Kouchner, the head of
the United Nations administration in Kosovo, said that he would look at the
idea but he did not favour it.

But it will appeal to a growing number of sceptics who say that Nato’s
efforts to persuade Serbs and gipsies to stay are failing. If accepted, it
would probably allow the Serbs a high degree of autonomy to run their
affairs along the lines of the ethnic entities agreed at the 1995 Dayton
peace agreement for Bosnia-Hercegovina.

In Bosnia, Western efforts to recontruct a multi-ethnic society after
four years of war have failed, although the West has spent billions of
pounds on a peacekeeping force and reconstruction and social aid. But
conflict has been kept to a minimum by heavy Nato policing of the lines that
separate the entities and occasional steps to rein in radical politicians
and parties that incite violence.

Since Serb forces withdrew from Kosovo, almost all Serbs have been forced
out of predominantly ethnic Albanian areas. About 200 Serbs have been killed
and many more beaten or expelled from their houses. Last month 14 Serb
farmers were killed in one shooting south of Pristina.

The leadership of the Kosovo Liberation Army has denied responsibility
for the violence against Serbs and has called on ethnic Albanians to refrain
from revenge killings. However, many ethnic Albanians see a historic
opportunity to rid Kosovo of their long-time enemies once and for all before
a final Balkan settlement which will probably come after the political
demise of Slobodan Milosevic.

The proposal for the cantonisation of Kosovo will be implemented only if
it gains currency internationally as a way of halting attacks against Serbs
and gipsies. Much of the political gain reaped by Western leaders when
Belgrade capitulated after three months of air strikes has been lost as
Nato’s inability to protect the besieged minorities becomes evident.

The KLA, now Kosovo’s leading political force, has rejected autonomy or
cantons for the Serbs. Bilal Sherif, the KLA official at the council
meeting, said: "There can be no division of Kosovo."

If Serb demands for autonomy within Kosovo are met, the boundaries of
those areas will probably strengthen into borders. With Kosovo moving
towards full independence, these enclaves could eventually be given to
Belgrade in a land-for-sovereignty trade.

Such a compromise has been rejected both by ethnic Albanian leaders and
Belgrade. But as Kosovo’s Western administrators grudgingly accept that the
multi-ethnic ideal is not working it will doubtless gain currency among
advocates of realpolitik.